A supply of ribbon often comes wound in the form of a traversed roll, rather than a flat roll (flat or pancake-type pad.) As seen in FIG. 2, to form a traversed roll 6, for example on a spool 2, is used that is several times “wider” than the width of a ribbon 4. This enables the ribbon 4 to be wound around the spool 2, while moving back and forth along the width of the spool 2, which enables the total length of ribbon 4 that is wound, onto the same diameter spool, to be greater. However, unwinding the ribbon 4 from the traversed roll 6 onto a stationary ribbon guide 8 or other take-up point presents a problem. To explain, assume that the stationary ribbon guide 8 is aligned with a center or midpoint axis of the roll 6 as shown in the drawing (noting that a different position for the stationary ribbon guide 8 will not alleviate the problem.) In that case, as the ribbon 4 is unwound and departs or exits from the roll 6 at the midpoint, it is not unevenly pulled or distorted because the longitudinal axis of the ribbon 4, at that position, is perpendicular to the outside surface of the roll 6. Viewed differently, the longitudinal axis of the ribbon 4, when it has just departed the roll 6 is perpendicular to a rotation axis 10 of the roll 6 as projected onto the outside surface of the roll 6 where the ribbon 4 is about to exit the roll 6.
However, as the departure point of the ribbon 4 traverses towards either the left end or the right end of the roll 6, and then changes direction and traverses back, it is pulled at an increasingly acute angle and may therefore be damaged. That is because an “exit” angle 11 between the longitudinal axis of the ribbon 4 (at the point where it has just departed the roll 4) and the outside surface of the roll 6 is now acute, as shown. The wider the roll 6, the farther away from the midpoint are the left end and the right end of the roll 6, and the more acute the angle 11. If the angle 11 is sufficiently acute, greater damage is imparted on the ribbon 4 (between the roll 6 and the stationary ribbon guide 8.) To alleviate this situation, one solution is to position the stationary ribbon guide 8 farther away from the roll 6, along its center axis. This results in the angle 11 being less acute (when the traversing ribbon 4 reaches either end of the roll 6.) A more complicated solution is to oscillate the roll 6 along its rotation axis to maintain a perpendicular ribbon departure angle at all points of the roll width.